


M, A, and other letters

by DracoIgnis



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Engagement, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Illustrated, Jonerys, Pumpkins, Romance, artwork, iceandfiresource, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 07:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20849435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DracoIgnis/pseuds/DracoIgnis
Summary: Jon brings home not one, not two, but eight pumpkins to carve. What has he got in mind? Jonerys AU short story with original artwork.





	M, A, and other letters

..

“You bought _ eight _ pumpkins?”

As Jon opened the trunk of his car to reveal the pile of pumpkins, Daenerys gawked. He couldn’t help but laugh: “Don’t look so shocked!”

“Are you planning on carving all night?” she asked. She reached in to pick one up, but found herself barely able to carry it; not only was it large, but it was surprisingly heavy. “These are _ huge._”

“I got them from the patch just outside town,” Jon explained as he picked one up himself. He turned the pumpkin between his hands, the fresh dirt rubbing off on his jumper. “The old man gave me a discount.”

“What, for buying all his stock?”

“Nah, for buying all his _ wonky _ stock,” Jon said and showed her the pumpkin he was holding. He tapped his fingertips to the rough skin, and it was only then she noticed - _ all _ the pumpkins were covered in grey patches and raw bumps. “Everyone loves a scary Halloween, and yet everyone wants their pumpkins to be picture perfect. Weird, isn’t it?” Jon spoke and popped the pumpkin to the ground before reaching for the next.

Daenerys gingerly placed hers next to his before helping him empty the trunk. “Well, works for me. Maybe we will be able to decorate nicely after all,” she said, throwing a longing look toward the house.

It was a chilly morning in October. Frost covered the lawn and shimmered on the surface of their house. Well, Daenerys liked to think of it as _ their _ house, but truth be told it was rented. Between her two part-time retail jobs and Jon’s bartending gigs, they barely made enough cash to pay the bills. Putting anything aside for a mortgage was a distant dream.

_ But nonetheless a dream, _ she thought, her hands resting on the top of a pumpkin as her gaze lingered on the facade of the house. It was _ ugly_; paint was peeling off every board, the porch was sloping, and one of the windows had been smashed and covered with cardboard. But to her it was home, and when she snuggled up on the sofa with Jon in the evening, there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

“Right, that’s it.” Jon shut the trunk and let go of a deep breath. He glanced across the eight giant, crooked pumpkins. “Let’s get them inside.”

“So, what, we’re carving four pumpkins each?” Daenerys asked and scratched her head as she considered the task ahead.

Jon shook his head. “No, you’re doing one-”

“Right.”

“-and I’m doing seven.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “You’re doing _ seven_? _ On your own?_”

Her tone of voice had been shocked, but Jon didn’t seem to notice. He picked up a pumpkin and flashed her a smile: “You wait and see.”

Daenerys watched him stagger across the yard, grunting and heaving under the weight of the pumpkin, and she shook her head with a smile. _ I guess I will, _ she thought.

* * *

Daenerys wasn’t quick at carving. She liked to take her time; first, she would research ideas online, then she would sketch on the pumpkin, and then, once the inside had been scooped out, she would start with the smallest, finest knife she owned to ensure her cuts would be _ perfect. _

Yet, she was done _ hours _ ahead of Jon.

Daenerys leaned back in the kitchen chair, her arms folded as she eyed Jon slowly cutting into pumpkin number four. _ Odd, _ she thought, watching Jon’s tongue poking from one cheek to the other, his brows furrowed, and his eyes narrowed in concentration, _ He normally just punches a few holes in the skin and calls it a night. _

She had wanted to see his first few creations, but Jon had insisted that they wouldn’t make sense until _ all _ of them were done. So he’d placed them on the kitchen counter, their fronts facing the wall, and left her wondering: What kind of image takes seven pumpkins to convey? _ A boyband? _ she thought, though she couldn’t think of any bands with seven members, nor of a reason why Jon would be carving it. _ Perhaps it’s one long picture? _

The kitchen was sparsely lit. Candles flickered in the windowsill, and from the living room the faint glow from the TV fell through the open door. Daenerys pulled her feet onto the chair and hugged her knees to her chest as she wondered if it made the place spooky or cosy.

It wasn’t that she wouldn’t like more light, but they were trying their best to save money on _ everything, _ even electricity. Jon had been especially focused on saving cash recently; don’t let the water run while brushing teeth, turn off the main switch not just the computer, eat tinned vegetables instead of fresh, tend their own garden of herbs in the backyard. All good ideas. All made them look like super environmentalists. Jon’s family had been very impressed; most of them lived in the city and earned more cash in a month than Daenerys had ever seen in a lifetime, and they considered their lifestyle _ quaint. _

However, despite being enthusiastic about it in the beginning, their situation was starting to tire Daenerys. Perhaps it was Jon’s constant nagging (“Do you _ need _ the radio on in the morning?”), or perhaps it was the fact that she wasn’t seeing any of it pay off. Whenever she checked their account, it looked the same as it had last month, and it made her heart ache. She thought: I am giving up every little luxury, for _ what? _ It had made her stubborn, so when he tried to get her to turn off the TV, she had insisted that she wanted, no, _ needed _ some noise in her life.

“Else it feels too lonely in this empty house,” she said, and he’d let her have it.

Daenerys closed her eyes as she listened to those faint voices from the living room TV. They mixed with the sound of Jon’s knife slipping through the flesh of the pumpkin, and it lulled her into a light sleep.

She dreamed. She dreamt about the house. In her dreams, the place was freshly painted white, the door red, and beyond it was no darkness. There was light, and sounds filled every hallway, not from the TV, but from them. From her, and from Jon, and from children, _ their _ children, as many of them as she could imagine possible, their little feet pattering up the stairs, their small voices calling for her. _ Daenerys. Daenerys. Daenerys. _

* * *

“Daenerys?”

Daenerys stirred and she sat up straight at the sound of her name. Confused, she blinked, the darkness around her all-consuming. The TV had been turned off, and the candles in the sill had burned out. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she glanced around for the voice, only to find Jon next to her.

He smiled down at her, his grey eyes glimmering slightly, and his hand closed around her shoulder. “Morning,” he chuckled, “or, should I say, _ night_?”

“Did I sleep?” she asked and yawned at once.

“You sure snored,” he replied.

She blinked her eyes some more as she tried to adjust to the dark. When her gaze fell on the kitchen counter, she realised it was empty. “Did you finish?” she asked. “Where are the pumpkins?”

“Come and see them,” Jon urged as he turned for the hallway.

Daenerys slowly slipped down from the kitchen chair, her arms hugging her chest as she shivered. It must have gotten late, she realised, for when she peeked out the front door, the whole neighbourhood was clad in black. Their neighbours’ houses had no lights on. The only glimmer was from the lonely street lamp just down the road from them.

Jon was waiting for her on the front porch, the pumpkins lined up against the railing. She tried to squint, but she couldn’t make out the faces on them.

“It’s too dark,” she said.

“I’ll put candles in them. Go to the lawn. You’ll get the best view.”

Daenerys wrinkled her nose and looked at the frosty grass. “It’s so cold, Jon. Can’t we do this tomorrow?” She hid another yawn behind her hand, but Jon shook his head.

“I want to do this now,” he said, then added: “_ Please? _”

She looked at him. His cheeks seemed darker, and his eyes were wide with excitement. Whatever he had carved, he _ really _ wanted her to see, and she found she couldn’t deny him. So she slipped into a pair of clogs as she trudged down the steps of the porch to the lawn, then turned and threw out her arms. “Here I am!” she informed him.

Jon gave her a thumbs up as he reached down and lit the candle in the first pumpkin. She watched as he turned it to face her, and a slight smile spread across her lips.

The first pumpkin was her own creation. It was a typical Halloween pumpkin with triangular, angry eyes and a tooth filled mouth twisted in an angry growl. “It’s good!” she called, pleased with herself. “But I wanted to see yours.”

“Hold on.” Jon leaned down once again, lit a candle, and turned the second pumpkin.

Daenerys cocked her head to the side in confusion as she stared at the carving. It wasn’t a face. It wasn’t even a scenery. It was a large, graphic M.

“M?” she spoke. “You took all night to carve an M?”

“_ Hold on _,” Jon said again, “I told you - you need the whole picture!” With that, he lit the next pumpkin and turned it: A.

Daenerys hugged herself. “M. A. I don’t know anyone with those initials.”

Another turned. R. Daenerys’ lips shut closed as her tired brain started waking up. The more pumpkins that turned, the more awake she felt, and despite the cold air around her, she found herself warming up.

M. A. R. R. Y. M. E.

Daenerys’ hand clenched at her chest as Jon turned the last pumpkin and gave her a bright smile. “Marry me.” She whispered the words out loud, but she could scarcely believe them herself. She repeated: “Marry me,” but it still tasted so strange on her lips.

Jon’s brilliant smile turned gentle as he walked the steps of the porch to greet her. He grabbed at her hands. “Marry me,” he said. When he spoke the words, they sounded even stranger; like something she wanted to hear, but couldn’t understand she was hearing. Then, he dropped to one knee, one hand still clenching hers as he reached the other into the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a ring.

In the soft glow from the pumpkins, she could make out the thin shape of the rose-gold band, atop of it a small stone shaped like a snowflake.

“Jon,” she whispered stunned. “It’s _ beautiful_.”

“It’s not real,” he blubbered quickly, his cheeks growing red. “I mean, it is a ring, but the stone - well, I tried to save as much as I could, but I couldn’t get you what you deserve. I _ really _ tried. If I could, I’d get you a diamond, but-”

“Jon,” Daenerys said again, a smile on her lips as she silenced him. “You don’t have to come up with excuses.”

“Well,” Jon mumbled, his cheeks glowing more red. He looked almost ashamed. “I just wish that I, well, that I had _ more to offer._”

With that, she reached over and grabbed his face as she leaned down to kiss him. She could feel his lips quiver, and she thought, _ Poor thing, he was so scared to ask me. _ “Jon, I don’t need _ anything _ else,” she whispered to his lips. “I have all I need right here.”

“So… that’s a yes?” Jon asked innocently, and Daenerys laughed.

“Yes, that’s a yes! Yes, yes, _ yes!_”

Jon slipped the ring on her finger and rose to embrace her. His lips found hers, and he could taste her still saying _ yes _ as they kissed. For a while, they just stood like that, together, with the pumpkins glowing behind them, lighting up their frame as they warmed each other in the cold night.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Jonerys October AU month run by iceandfiresource. Artwork by DragonandDirewolf. Hope you all enjoyed! As always, thank you for the lovely comments on the last story, I am so thrilled with the feedback! You all truly make writing worth it.


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